I’ve ranted, I’ve redundantly elaborated, and I’ve ridiculously commented, time and time again on how the Bears must fix their penetrable defense. And they sure fixed it Tuesday night. The Bears defense only allowed the Drake Bulldogs to shoot less than 35% en route to a 60-51 home victory at JQH Arena.

The MSU Bears overcame a sloppy first half effort and beat the Bradley Braves 77-69 Wednesday night at JQH Arena. Forward Kyle Weems tied his season high 27 points as the Bears drained 13 shots beyond the arc shooting 48.9% from the field — their best in seven games. The Bears now share the first place bragging rights in the Valley with Wichita State.

The Basketball Bears are probably back in blizzard-ravaged Springfield by now. They’ll realize they don’t have class, hit the sack, and head to practice the next morning. According to Adam Leonard’s twitter account, the shooting guard tweeted: “These 3 losses were flukes! We will prove it. If you jumped off our wagon, deuces. But if your still with us… Watch what happens next.”

The University of Northern Iowa Panthers avenged their home court loss Sunday night, and beat the Bears in front of close to 10,000 fans at JQH Arena. ‘The defending Valley champs shut down the Bears in the second half, allowing MSU to shoot just 20% from the field. The loss now gives the Bears a 17-4 record and snaps a 19-game winning streak.

The Bears took care of an over-achieving Drake team Tuesday night as all starters reached double digit scoring. It wasn’t easy. It didn’t look easy. In fact, I was uneasy just watching the game. This is the best start of any Bears basketball squad since the 1967-68 Div. II team, but if they want to make a historic run at the NCAA tournament, the Bears need some better play from their bench.